The Disconnect Between Republican Immigration Policy and Politics

Kris Kobach’s Extreme Positions Adopted by Platform Committee on Same Day Romney Campaign States Goal of Significantly Increasing Latino Support

As we predicted yesterday, Kris Kobach – the legal architect of the Arizona and Alabama anti-immigrant laws and Kansas Secretary of State – continues to dominate the immigration policies of Mitt Romney’s Republican Party. Yesterday, he persuaded the RNC platform committee drafters to adopt the key elements of his radical immigration approach, the goal of which is to drive millions of Latino immigrants out of the country in a strategy that he calls “attrition through enforcement” and Mitt Romney calls “self-deportation.” On the very same day, Romney’s Hispanic Committee co-chair articulated the campaign’s ambitious goal of winning nearly 38% of Latino voters this November – a far cry from recent polling that has him attracting as low as 22%.

According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice, “Boston, we have a problem. While the Romney campaign announces its plans to nearly double the candidate’s Hispanic support, the Republican Party doubles down on radical immigration policy stances. When is the Romney campaign going to get it? Telling Latino voters – most of whom know undocumented immigrants and many of whom live in mixed-status families – to vote for their guy while the Republican Party is telling Latino immigrants to get out and go home is hardly a winning electoral strategy.”

Also yesterday, Romney campaign Hispanic Leadership Team co-chair Jose Fuentes noted that the campaign is seeking to win at least 38% of Latino voters nationwide this November. For Romney to achieve the 38% threshold, he will have to dramatically improve his current standing among Latino voters. According to a Univision summary of ten polls of Latino registered voters, Obama leads Romney by 66.7 percent to 22.9 percent. Needless to say, the “very aggressive” messaging and media efforts geared to Latino voters Fuentes predicted will do little to counteract the damage done by embracing and advocating Kobach’s extremism.

America’s Voice — Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform.www.americasvoiceonline.org